05 February 2014

Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?

Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?

On
18 April 1943, near the town of Stourbridge, four young boys in search
of bird nests in Hagley Wood found a hollow elm tree (a Wych Elm or Scots Elm). One boy climbed up
and peered into the hollow trunk and found a human skull staring back
at him. Despite a pact of silence, one boy, Tommy Willetts, told his
father about their grisly discovery and the police were quickly called.

The
Worcestershire County Police recovered a skeleton from the trunk, along
with some fragments of clothing and finger bones scattered around the
trunk. A pathologist concluded that the remains belonged to a woman who
had been placed in the tree about 18 months previously (October 1941)
while still warm. She had likely been asphyxiated due to the taffeta
stuffed inside her mouth.

The
woman was thought to be 35-40 years old. She was five feet tall with
mousy brown hair and a deformed lower jaw. She wore a cheap gold wedding
ring, no more than four years old, and had given birth at least once.

The
woman's distinctive teeth were a promising lead for identification
purposes, but despite contacting every dentist in the country, police
were unable to identify the mystery woman. Six months later, graffiti
asking "Who put Bella down the wych elm" appeared in the region. Did
someone know something? If so, no one was talking. The woman had seemingly come
from nowhere and was missed by no one. Some speculated that the woman
had been the victim of an occult ceremony. Others thought that she might be a Roma (gypsy) who had afoul of her community and been put to death.

In
1953, a woman calling herself "Anna" contacted a newspaper claiming to
have information on Bella's killers. Anna met with local police and
claimed that Bella had been murdered by a German spy ring which involved
a British officer, a Dutchman and a music hall artist (or a trapeze artist, depending on sources). Anna claimed
that Bella was a Dutch woman who arrived illegally in England, got
mixed up in the spy ring and paid the price with her life.In
1968, writer Donald McCormick wrote a book (Murder by Witchcraft) in
which he claimed that Bella had been a Nazi spy named Clarabella,
recruited by the Abwehr and given the code-name CLARA. McCormick claimed
to have seen Abwehr records which suggested that CLARA had parachuted
into the West Midlands in 1941 but had failed to make radio contact.
McCormick suggested that the woman was actually Clarabella Dronkers, a
Dutch woman who had lived in Birmingham. She had irregular teeth and
would have been 30 years old in 1941. Interestingly, a Dutchman named Johannes Marinus Dronkers was executed as a spy by the British in December 1942.

In
March 2013, The Independent newspaper put a fascinating spin on the
case of Bella in the Wych Elm. They suggested that perhaps Bella was
none other than Clara Bauerle, the mistress of German spy Josef Jakobs. The
Independent presumed that Clara Bauerle and Klara Sophie Bauerle (found
in the Home Office records) were the same person. The newspaper
indicated that Bauerle was a cabaret artist who had spent two years
working in the music halls of the West Midlands before the war and that
she spoke English with a Birmingham accent. It was suggested that
English audiences could easily hear "Clara Bauerle" as "Clarabella".
The music hall connection also harkened back to Anna's information in
1953. The newspaper claimed that Jakobs had said Clara was due to
parachute into the Midlands in the spring of 1941. Jakobs did say that Clara might follow him to England but, to the best of my knowledge, gave no specific location for her arrival.

The
Independent noted that there were no gramophone recordings, live
performances or movie appearances in her name after 1941, a tantalizing
mystery that would apparently leave Clara Bauerle as a potential
candidate for Bella in the Wych Elm.

One
comment must be made that immediately rules out Clara Bauerle as Bella
in the Wych Elm. The pathologist stated that Bella was 5 feet tall. Karel
Richter, himself over 5'10" tall, noted that he recognized Clara because of her
tallness. Clara was not 5 feet all and Clara Bauerle was therefore not
Bella in the Wych Elm. So what happened to Clara Bauerle if she didn't end up stuffed in a tree in Hagley Wood? Why did she seem from disappear from the music scene in Germany? (next article)

9 comments:

Anonymous
said...

If your photo of Clara with the 2 other singers in the orchestra Is correct you can see for yourself that she was not particularly tall - the woman in the centre being the tallest out of the 3 - Clara is apparently on the left. Allowing for heels and the smaller stature of a generation born at the turn of the 1900's I would say a height of approximately 5 foot would be about right for the woman in the picture identified as Clara on the left with the orchestra

Me again sorry to be seemingly obsessed with this woman's height! Ette who is standing next to the presumed Clara was a small man it is well documented - the woman is identified as Claire Baueler on the Bernhard Ette German website and the woman in the chair signing herself Clara seems neither large nor unattractive . It's seems more interesting to me that Richter would go to the trouble of giving a wrong description - any way enough speculation from me now as that way too many more conspiracy theories lie. Fascinating stuff though

No worries! I love a good mystery as well. Good to know that Ette was a short guy!

I went back to the site where I found the photograph (a German grammophone forum) and the identification of the women in the picture is speculative. The forum aficionados thought it "could" be those three women given the date of the photograph, who was singing with Ette at the time, etc. They thought that because Lohse was blonde, she would be the one on the right. Other forum participants disagreed suggesting a few other singers. So, unfortunately, the photograph is not a sure thing.

Naturally Richter and Jakobs were fighting for their lives and everything they said needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It doesn't help that beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Jakobs himself was a hair under 6 feet.

Also - not sure if you read the other two posts (late Jan & early Feb) I did on Clara but... according to a Bavarian Music Archive website, she died in Berlin on December 16, 1942.

If we're talking conspiracy theories - I did notice a passing resemblance between Vera Erikson (spy landed November 1940 in Banffshire) and the sketch of Bella in the Wych Elm.

Hello Giselle. I ran across your blog while I was searching for information on Bella and the wych elm, and I really appreciate the research you've done. You seem to have pretty thoroughly debunked the theory that Bella was Clara Bauerle.

I have a couple of questions. Do you mind if I ask where the photos of the wych elm and 'Bella's' skull came from, and do you mind if I use them on my own blog post on the subject? I haven't done anywhere near as much research as you, so I'll be linking to your blog.

Hi DJ,The photos come from Brian Haughton's website listed in the References. They seem quite widely distributed on the internet. I usually try to put a link back to the site in the photo caption (noticed I didn't do that on those postings!). Thanks for the link back. I'd appreciate a link to your blog once you've done the article. And yes, since you asked, you can use the photo of Josef (just link back to my blog).Cheers,

The post went up today, at https://cockburndj.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/inspirations-who-put-bella-in-the-wych-elm/. Thanks again for your help on a few points, and I'd be grateful for any further thoughts you may have.